A Super waste of money: Are Super Bowl Ads worth the high price?

This post is neither written way too late or a little too early. It is written at the perfect time so that you have enough time to fully ruminate the contents in time for this year’s Super Bowl. A Super Bowl Ad seems to be one of the worst things a company could do with its money. A 30 second spot cost $2.6 million in last year’s Super Bowl, with the rate expected to be $2.5 million this year. An ad, in its simplest form, is supposed to influence the viewer to buy a product. This is usually accomplished through some form of call to action or revelation of a promotion. Super Bowl Ads have neither of those and are judged not on their efficacy, but if they were funny or not. A successful ad is one that is talked about on Monday or that receives high scores from Adage. Companies like Budweiser, Miller, and Coke are expected to have several spots and the millions they spend on the Super Bowl are a small amount of their yearly advertising budget. Each year, small companies spend a good portion, if not all, of their yearly budget on trying to create “buzz” and “brand awareness.” If an ad isn’t awesome, like REALLY good, no one will remember it, and the money is lost. I contend that an “OK” Super Bowl Ad could be a really good campaign (one that will increase sales) if implemented at other times during the year. Once an ad is labeled as a “Bad Super Bowl Ad,” there is little an ad can do to change that. The message sent is no longer heard. Memories of the negative connotations first conjured up by the ad will continue for the duration of the campaign. On Super Bowl Sunday, America expects the best football, chips-and-dip-combo, and TV Ads. For a lot of companies, the gamble is often not worth the price of ad-mission.

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